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Variability in Indonesian Throughflow Upper Hydrology in Response to Precession‐Induced Tropical Climate Processes Over the Past 120 kyr
Author(s) -
Zhang Peng,
Xu Jian,
Beil Sebastian,
Holbourn Ann,
Kuhnt Wolfgang,
Li Tiegang,
Xiong Zhifang,
Yan Hong,
Cui Rui,
Liu Heng,
Wu Hanning
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: oceans
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9291
pISSN - 2169-9275
DOI - 10.1029/2020jc017014
Subject(s) - throughflow , intertropical convergence zone , geology , climatology , upwelling , oceanography , orbital forcing , monsoon , forcing (mathematics) , thermohaline circulation , tropical atlantic , latitude , climate change , sea surface temperature , precipitation , geography , meteorology , soil science , geodesy
The Indonesian Throughflow (ITF), as the sole low‐latitude conduit connecting the Pacific and Indian Oceans, regulates the thermohaline balance between these oceans. Thus, investigating the variability in the ITF and its relationship with the precessional forcing is crucial for understanding the drivers of tropical climate change. Here, we reconstruct the history of the ITF over the past ∼120 kyr based on high‐resolution (∼400 years) δ 18 O and Mg/Ca records of Globigerinoides ruber and Pulleniatina obliquiloculata from core SO217‐18540 retrieved from the Flores Sea upwelling region within the main pathway of the ITF. A comparison of these new records with published paleo‐oceanographic and climatological data from the western tropical Pacific Ocean suggests that annual mean conditions in the Flores Sea were controlled by ITF variability rather than by monsoonal upwelling. Our results further indicate that precessional insolation was a major forcing for the hydrological evolution of the ITF during the past 120 kyr. We suggest that the precessional insolation forcing paced ITF variability by modulating the mean state of El Niño‐Southern Oscillation‐like conditions and latitudinal shifts and/or expansion/contraction of the Intertropical Convergence Zone.